WEST, SAMUEL: The name of two American Unitarian ministers.

1. Of New Bedford, Mass.; b. at Yarmouth, Cape Cod, Mass., Mar. 3, 1730 (O. S.); d. at Tiverton, Newport Co., R. L, Sept. 24, 1807. After a youth spent on his father's farm, he entered Harvard College (B.A., 1754), and after graduation spent several years in further study, much of his time being devoted to science, while in later years he developed a very marked interest in alchemy. In 1761 he was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational church at New Bedford, Mass., which he continued to serve, though at times much crippled financially, until age and impairment of mental powers forced him to retire in 1803. During the Revolution he served as a chaplain in the American forces at Boston, and took an active part as a member of the conventions for framing the constitution of Massachusetts and for adopting the constitution of the United States, his personal influence over his former classmate, Governor Hancock, largely securing the adhesion of his state to the American Constitution. Besides his addiction to alchemy, west devoted much time to the study of expected fulfihnents of prophecy, and these traits, together with an almost incredible absent-mindedness, give a curious picture to the present day. Although he published a number of sermons, west is chiefly memorable for a polemic against Jonathan Edwards' doctrine of predestination, entitled Essays on Liberty and Necessity (2 parts, 1793-95).

2. Of Boston; b. at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., Nov. 19, 1738 (O. S.); d. at Boston, Mass., Apr. 10, 1808. After a youth of privation, he entered Harvard College (B.A., 1761), and on graduation was chosen chaplain to the garrison at Port Pownal, Penobscot, Me., where he spent a year. After acting as an occasional supply at Cambridge, where he had returned for further study, he was ordained in 1764 to the ministry of the church at Needham, Mass., where he remained, despite some friction owing to the delay of his congregation in paying him his salary, until 1789, when he assumed charge of the Hollis Street Church, Boston, where he labored regularly until 1801, after which increasing infirmity of age compelled him gradually to withdraw from active life. Brought up as a Calvinistic Trinitarian, west broke with Calvinism at an early period; his precise views on the Trinity are uncertain, but he was ranked as an opponent of the conservative school. His only publications were a number of sermons.

He was graduated from Yale College, 1755; pursued his theological studies with Rev. Timothy Woodbridge of Hatfield, Mass.; was called in 1757 to be the military chaplain at Hoosac Fort; in 1758 he was invited, by the commissioners for Indian affairs in Boston, to succeed Jonathan Edwards in the Indian mission at Stockbridge, and was ordained pastor of the church at Stockbridge in 1759; here until 1775 he preached to the Indiana in the morning and in the afternoon to the white settlers; after that year he confined his labors to the latter. Early in this pastorate he adopted the views of Jonathan Edwards; he then preached a series of sermons, which were afterward published in the form of an Essay on Moral Agency (New Haven, 1772, 2d ed., 1794). He next published his Essay on the Scripture Doctrine of the Atonement (1785; 2d ed., with appendix, 1815). After he had passed his eightieth year he issued his Evidence of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ; Collected from the Scriptures (1816). He attracted to himself many theological pupils, who resided in his house, and uniformly spoke of him in terms of the highest admiration. At least five of them became eminent as preachers and writers; among them may be noted Samuel Spring (q.v.), of Newburyport, and John Thornton Kirkland, president of Harvard College.

West was not only a man of great diligence in study, but was also noted for practical insight and activity. It was partly in recognition of this that in 1793, when Williams College was incorporated, Dr. West was named as one of the trustees, and at the first meeting of the board was elected vice-president of the institution. He was one of Samuel Spring's chief counselors in forming the Creed and Associate Statutes of Andover Theological Seminary. He was also a pioneer in the organization and operation of various missionary and charitable institutions.